Bleeding Sun
by Tavina
Summary: Hyuga Neji wished only for a quiet life with his family, practicing the Gentle Fist in the big house on the hill. But when Foshan falls to the Japanese invasion, one quiet unassuming martial artist might have to stand up and fight back. Or, the Ip Man AU that no one asked for. NejiTen Month 2019.
1. Homecoming

Chapter One: Homecoming

"Thoughts in the Silent Night

Beside my bed, a pool of light—

Is that hoarfrost on the ground?

I lift my eyes and see the moon,

I bend my head and think of home."

— Thoughts in the Silent Night, _Li Bai_

* * *

_Foshan 1926_

"Tenten! Tenten!" The shout rings out over the main courtyard at the Ling House. "Tenten, where are you?" A young man with a bowl cut hurries down the street. His green jacket is trimmed with thick wool to keep out the biting late-spring chill. It is mid-morning, quiet and still except for the excited shouts still echoing about in the gray roof tiles.

Lee bounds over the doorway and clatters into the courtyard-garden. "Tenten, did you not hear me?"

There's no Tenten in the garden.

Oh, well that's unfortunate. He'd thought that she was sure to be here, practicing with a long spear. She's here most days he visits; today shouldn't have been any different.

Belatedly, Lee considers that it might not have been a good idea to bellow so loudly that the whole street could probably hear him, but he's just so excited. Surely, decorum can wait, right?

Swordsmith Ling steps out of the house, a smile crinkling around his mouth and eyes. He is a tall man with graying brown hair and laughing brown eyes, dressed his habitual gray robe. "Lee, the Haruno four doors down could hear you. With how loudly you shouted, Tenten has to have heard you. Mrs. Haruno will send me a noise complaint later, I'm sure of it." Mrs. Haruno liked order and propriety and most ardently had issues with the "martial arts rabble" in her quiet, upscale neighborhood.

Well, there is only martial arts rabble in her quiet upscale neighborhood because Swordsmith Ling and his family moved here some twenty years previous, and that's left the Ling Household open to criticism by their neighbors.

Still, that bothers neither of the two men here in the courtyard at the moment, so they can lay it to rest without much trouble.

"Ah." Lee rubs the back of his neck with a lopsided smile. "I'm sorry about that Uncle Ling. I won't forget to be quiet next time."

This quiet district in Foshan's upper class neighborhood can't compare to the bustle and noise of the Martial Artist's Street where he grew up. There, everyone had to bellow to be heard. He's gotten a little over used to it, even though he's been here to the Ling House so many times it might as well be a second home.

"No, no, don't worry about such a thing. The Haruno are welcome to send me a noise complaint every time you arrive. It's always so good to see you. Come in for tea." Swordsmith Ling throws an arm around Lee's shoulders, and the two of them walk leisurely toward the house. "How's your father? Has Master Gai gathered any more students for his school?"

"No." Lee perks up again a moment later. "But we are still doing quite well. Thank you for asking, Uncle Ling." A smile on his face and a spark of determination in his eye — Maito Lee was never known for giving up or giving in. "One day, I will make my father's style of Martial Arts famous! Just you wait, Uncle Ling! I'll be the Master of a large martial arts school one day!"

They are currently a school of two, he and his father, but one day, one day, he will make it known that everyone can become a good martial artist through hard work. He hadn't been born with much natural talent, but his father had never looked down on that.

Maito Gai had always said that his skills and achievements now are so much sweeter because he had to work for them. So he'll do his best to guide his future students the same way.

"So what brings you to the Ling House?" Swordsmith Ling had moved to Foshan some twenty years ago from Sichuan because there were fewer and fewer martial artists there. Business dwindled and as a consequence, the Ling Family had moved to Foshan where martial arts still prospered, and the Ling Family Weapon Business had chance to prosper as well.

Twenty years on, Ling Liushan has grown wealthy and famous in the city of his choice though the burrs of his accent still lingered a little bit whenever he spoke. At this point though, no one really noticed. He's a welcome guest whenever he chooses to visit, and where he had come from, well, that had mostly been lost to the sands of time.

He was as much a native to Foshan as those who had lived there all their lives.

"Oh, I have great news!" Lee bounces on the balls of his feet, barely capable of containing his happy energy while Swordsmith Ling looked on with quiet fondness. "The best news of the year!"

"What news, Lee?" Ling Tenten steps out of a doorway, closing it behind her with a casual hand. She holds a spear slung across her shoulders.

Ah, so that's what it was. She'd just been a little late to come out and practice then. Maybe Lee had just been a little too excited and ran too fast?

That would explain everything.

Ling Tenten is a young woman of about nineteen, tall for her age, with serious gray eyes that often laughed like her father's. Today she's wearing a pink shirt and a pair of dark woolen pants.

Lee pauses for a moment to catch his breath so he can blurt out the news in its entirety all at once. "Neji's coming home from Guangzhou in less than two weeks. I heard it from the servants at the Hyuga Manor, so I know it's absolutely true. Master Hiashi even opened a bottle of wine to celebrate the occasion."

Tenten's long spear clatters to the ground. "Neji's coming home?"

Three years ago, Master Hiashi, his uncle, had sent Neji off to finish school in a bigger city than Foshan, and the closest provincial capital had been Guangzhou. Master Hiashi had said it was because he wanted Neji to see more of the world that just Foshan, and their family had the money to send him so far, so he had gone.

Since then, he has not been back to Foshan. All his New Years, all his Mid-Autumn Festivals, every Duanwu and Lantern Festival for the past three years had been spent studying very very hard.

In the first year, he wrote letters frequently home to Lee or Tenten, but by the second, his studies got harder, and they learned what they could of him from letters he sent home to his cousins, Hinata and Hanabi.

By this year, his third year away, even those letters had slowed to a gentle stop.

She knew it was because he couldn't afford to lose moments when every little bit of time would help him pass the examinations and make his uncle happy. Neji tries very hard to make his uncle happy.

It is only an unfortunate faultline in both of their personalities that they never show each other that they are happy. Tenten hopes to heaven that they know though. It would truly be horrible if they didn't. She can't imagine living that way, and so hopes that Neji doesn't have to.

Master Hiashi would have tea with her father perhaps once or twice a month. As martial artists, pillars of the community, and good friends, they would always find some excuse to meet relatively frequently despite their busy schedules.

And always, always, in the past three years, not a visit would pass without some talk of Neji, some proud mention of how well his nephew was doing, but Neji himself never knew. He and his uncle are both taciturn with each other, never truly honest.

She'd never really understood how they could bear to live like that.

Neji always thought he had to do better, push himself further, and now, now he is coming home.

Tenten grabs Lee by the shoulders. "Did you hear if he passed the examinations?"

Lee shakes his head, and for a moment, her heart leaps to her throat. _No? No, he has to have passed…_ In her heart at least, Neji is a hero and a scholar, and there's way he wouldn't pass the government exams.

"I don't know. I didn't wait around to hear much more than the news that he's coming home soon."

Tenten slumps against a wall, her spear practice completely forgotten. Three years have passed.

How has her friend changed?

"Well, it's always good to hear of Neji, and this news is excellent." Swordsmith Ling claps Lee's shoulder. "Come, I invited Lee for tea. We can discuss this more slowly over a drink and a few desserts."

Tenten remembers herself abruptly and with disguised nonchalance, picks up her spear, slinging it over her shoulders once more. "Of course," she says, trying somehow to find her balance once more. "Baba, can Lee stay for lunch as well? I'd love to practice with him in the garden."

"Of course, of course." The three of them make their way toward the dining room. "We always have another plate for Lee should he want one."

Lee beams. "If it won't be too much trouble, I'd love to stay!" There's not much for him to do at home, and practicing forms with Tenten is always a worthwhile endeavor. He knows his father doesn't expect him back soon, since he has gone to visit the Ling House.

There's no harm in staying.

* * *

After lunch, Lee and Tenten retreat to the back garden, she with her long spear, and he with his bare fists. Together, they while away the afternoon, trading blows back and forth.

"You've improved." She means this in the best possible way. Lee _has _improved. He's noticeably faster and more accurate with his punches now.

"And so have you, my friend!" Lee dodges another stab of her long spear, rolling with the sweep of her weapon and leaping to his feet not even winded in the end. "Your youth is blossoming nicely!"

He darts forward with another quick pair of punches, which she counters with the heft and heavy weight of her spear handle, careful not to jab the metal sheathed end into his stomach and leave him with heavy bruises and the wind knocked out of him.

He flashes her a brilliant grin when the longer reach of her spear finally gets the best of him. With a spear in hand, she's better than him, capable of using the shaft as leverage against his strikes both attacking and defending.

She presses the blade a little closer, and with a playful laugh asks him a question. "Lee, do you yield?"

He seems to consider it. "Never!"

She teases the spear closer. "Never?"

He throws up his hands in good natured jest. "Alright, alright! I yield to you my most youthful of friends."

"As well you should." She savors the sweet taste of victory for a moment before letting Lee catch his breath.

A bead of sweat slides down her brow and gets caught in her eyebrow before she wipes it away with the back of her hand. She answers his grin with a challenging one of her own. "Do you dare to go another round, Lee?"

He doesn't say a word, just makes a beckoning gesture with one of his hands.

She casts her long spear aside — it clatters to the dirt of the courtyard and rolls away into a bush.

Another flurry of punches and kicks and they start the next round.

When the sun slides down and covers the courtyard in deep shadows, Lee notices the time and bids her farewell with a bright grin and a salute. "I'm going to head back and see if my father wants me to pick up anything from the market!"

"I won't keep you longer then." She waves him off before going to retrieve her spear which had rolled off underneath the spreading peonies.

"Tenten, can I have a moment?" Her father's watching her from the walkway next to the front door, his face cast in shadow by the way the slate shingles block the light.

"Of course, Baba." She slings her spear over her shoulders and walks back into the house with him. "What's on your mind?"

"How do you feel about Neji?"

The question blindsides her. "How do I feel about Neji?" She considers it. "I've missed him. He is a dear friend."

"Just a friend?" When she looks up, her father has an unreadable face.

"Well, what else…" She trails off out of shock. "Baba, you don't mean to ask me if I like him?"

"Is the thought of that so strange?" He pours her a cup of tea and gestures for her to come sit by his side and watch the sunlight fade from the flowers. "You two have been friends for many years now, and he is a good young man. It would not be a bad thing if you did like him."

She swirls her tea around in the blue and white porcelain cup and thinks about her feelings some more. On all matters of the heart, it's best to let the heart decide.

What does her heart say? And more importantly, what does she want her heart to say?

"I haven't seen him in three years." She says, slowly parsing out the layers of feeling. "And now I am uncertain." She is uncertain, uncertain of his heart, and uncertain of hers.

Maybe if they'd spent the last three years together she would know for certain which way the needle points, but time changes people.

She's changed.

How has Neji changed?

How can she really say? She would have to talk to Neji.

"Well," her father pours himself another cup of tea. "There is no fault with that. It was just a thought."

And she knows, she knows it very well.

Her father would never agree to any marriage where she wasn't sure of herself and her decisions.

* * *

Three days pass with no word of Neji's return, but on the morning of the fourth day, the entirety of Foshan has heard the news.

Late last night, the long absent prodigy of the Gentle Fist technique returned home to his uncle's manor on the hill.

Hyuga Neji's returned to Foshan. In his hand, he holds the highest examination scores to come out of Guangzhou that year.

His uncle doesn't expect more of him, he's sure. His uncle had never expected him to become a government official in the corrupt political scheme of Beijing. It was all about prestige. It was always about proving that he could, that the Hyuga name could still be associated with great achievements. Like his father before him, he could take a government position if he so chose, but also like his father before him, he's turned his back on that life.

He doesn't want to spend more time in Guangzhou, or further afield in Nanjing, or if he had greater ambition, Beijing.

For three years, he had dreamed of returning home triumphantly to Foshan, to a quiet life in a quiet country house on the big hill, to a young woman with grey eyes, to his two younger cousins, and to his best friend who he is sure still dresses in hideous green.

With this score in hand, he can finally broach the topic.

Three years away, he had turned this thought over and over in his mind by lamplight before he prepared for bed at least one night a week if not more. _Tenten, how are you? _Three years away, maybe she's fallen in love with someone else in the meantime.

He'd thought maybe they were in love before he left, but at seventeen he was hardly sure of his own feelings, much less her own. Now at twenty he is assured of his own, but not of hers. It has been long since they spoke.

And yes, that was his fault in part, he had worried too long about sending a letter filled with sentimental value when Tenten had never cared for sentimental words.

So he'd written the letter many times, filled with many different words, but the same underlying feeling every time. _Tenten, how are you? _But he had never sent it.

The value of a love is not determined by empty breath after all, and words are always empty after a time. No, best to stand face to face and speak with fists.

He raps on his uncle's door, once sharply, because it is not polite to pound.

Impatience is not polite.

He will test the waters by asking his uncle. Uncle Hiashi is good friends with Swordsmith Ling, so perhaps he would have taken note of Tenten's thoughts and feelings.

"Come in, Neji." Uncle Hiashi, at least, has not changed. He sounds just as disgruntled to be awake at an early hour as usual, but his pride refuses to allow him to sleep in.

"Good morning, Uncle." He pushes open the door and steps into the study.

It's one of the most beautiful rooms in the house — a Ming Dynasty vase holds a single branch of sweet cherry blossoms, several cherry wood chairs, a couch made of green bamboo, and the centerpiece of this room, the famous black table that's been passed down in their family for generations.

"I had something I wanted to ask you about." They'd met last night for dinner and talked over what his last three years in Guangzhou had been like, but he had not broached the topic then. No, this is a conversation for daylight and the bright world of morning and new beginnings.

Uncle Hiashi raises an eyebrow at him. "Well?"

Now that he's here, it's harder to ask. "Do you still visit Swordsmith Ling often?" Best begin with this then. If his uncle and Swordsmith Ling had an unfortunate falling out, then he'd have to elope.

"He is a busy man." Uncle Hiashi rises. "Did you want to visit Ling Manor? That can always be arranged." Ah, so there has been no falling out. What a marvelous thing to know.

"I turned twenty this year." His thoughts are unruly, running over themselves like badly written calligraphy.

"You want me to go speak with Swordsmith Ling about his only child."

Oh no. Was it that obvious? He didn't even get to the line 'and twenty is old enough to think of marriage.'

Well, since his uncle knows what he means, it makes things simpler. "Yes." He continues forward, more assured of himself now. "I would like to marry Ling Tenten."


	2. When We Meet Again

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

* * *

"The mountain-light suddenly fails in the west,

In the east from the lake the slow moon rises.

I loosen my hair to enjoy the evening coolness

And open my window and lie down in peace.

The wind brings me odours of lotuses,

And bamboo-leaves drip with a music of dew...

I would take up my lute and I would play,

But, alas, who here would understand?

And so I think of you, old friend,

O troubler of my midnight dreams!"

— In The Summer, At The South Pavilion, I Think of You, _Meng Haoran_

* * *

_Foshan 1926_

His uncle blinks once at this pronouncement, seemingly without any reaction to what he'd just said at all. The moments seem to ho are youdrag into hours. Under the strong light of the early morning, Neji begins to sweat slightly.

_Am I going to have to go through with the plan of elopement after all?_

He'd thought about the elopement being an option of course, he is _Hyuga Neji_, of course he would consider all options, but...but he had not considered perhaps...all the necessary details this would entail. Where would they go to elope? Where would they stay? How would they arrange it?

He hasn't the slightest idea. Perhaps he hadn't planned this as well as he thought.

"I thought you would never realize." The words hit him like a bucket of water rudely tossed to him from above as he passes under a window.

Neji manages a very coherent, "what?" in response to his uncle's words.

"I thought you would never realize that you should indeed marry Ling Tenten." His uncle casts him a look that momentarily makes him feel very small and foolish. "A good thing that I have ascertained she is not engaged to be married to anyone during my last visit to the Ling Estate. With how long you took to come to this conclusion, she might've decided Maito Lee was a better choice than someone she hasn't seen in several years."

Somehow, these words produce a burst of very unfilial irritation. After several years of not speaking face to face, Neji had..._forgotten _just how irritating it was to speak to his uncle sometimes. Uncle Hiashi is perhaps best described as _caustic, insensitive and highly problematic to speak to, _especially when one had to _ask _him for something.

He bites back a similarly angry retort. _And whose decision was it that I go to Guangzhou to study? _"Then I'm sure you wouldn't mind if I accept any invitations to visit Ling Manor?"

"No, I'd be delighted." Uncle Hiashi turns back to the account book he has open on his desk. "If that is all, please go endeavor to make yourself look more appealing and less like an insensitive ass to Swordsmith Ling's daughter before you make a buffoonish attempt to ask for her hand in marriage. Heaven knows it would be your biggest blessing in life should she accept."

And then he is waved _away. _

As if he is not twenty years old.

As if he were no more than a tiny child there to ask yet another baffling and foolish question.

What a horrible morning this has been.

It takes him until halfway down the hall to realize the enormity of what had happened.

Uncle Hiashi…

Uncle Hiashi _approved _of his thoughts about marrying Tenten. Uncle Hiashi had in his...rather odd, backwards and certainly unpleasant way, given his support about the matter.

If he wasn't also thoroughly irritated with the manner in which it was delivered, Neji would be happy enough to do a dance.

* * *

Cousin Neji had arrived home very late last night, so it'd been well past Hanabi's bed time. But like most of their household (except Cousin Neji, now that she had time to think about it) Hyuga Hanabi was a morning person.

Which is why when she rounds the corner and finds _Cousin Neji _who she has not seen for three _years, _she is not ashamed to say she just about shrieks with joy before flinging herself at him. "Cousin Neji!"

Her fist connects with the lower portion of his jaw, which was surprising enough, but thankfully, he seems to pull himself together because the rest of their sparring session didn't go as badly as the first punch.

It would seem that Guangzhou has made him unused to being attacked.

Disappointing really.

"_Hanabi," _Cousin Neji growls through gritted teeth. "What are you _doing._"

"I missed you!" She has. She really has. He's been gone for so long and now he is _finally _home once again. How could she miss the opportunity to spar?

"You _punched me. _First thing in the morning." He ducks under one of her fists and returns with an open palm of his own, right leg sweeping forward to knock her off her feet.

She flings herself upwards, using the carrying momentum of her jump to execute a kick towards his face. "It wasn't a very hard punch!"

His other arm sweeps upwards to block her kick with his forearm.

It might bruise later. Oops.

"This is not a good welcome home." He spins, hair flying out of its ponytail. "Hanabi, I haven't even had the chance to eat breakfast."

"But Cousin _Neji._"

Their spar in the in hallway is only interrupted with Big Sister Hinata appears around the corner, hiding a smile behind her hand. "Hanabi, it's time for breakfast." Turning to Cousin Neji, her older sister offers a sealed letter. "Big Brother, welcome home. Swordsman Ling extends an invitation for dinner tonight. He's missed you."

This is no surprise, because their family is _very _good friends with the Ling Family.

The eagerness with which Cousin Neji snatched up the dinner invitation and poured over its contents like a merchant searching for gold though, is new. "Tenten sent a dinner invitation?" he asks, absently.

Something inside Hanabi wakes up and cackles.

Oh. _Oh. This is going to be very good. _

Her sister blinks. "No, Swordsman Ling did."

The wind is taken out of Cousin Neji's sails immediately. It was almost like watching a hot air balloon getting punctured.

She'll have to fill her big sister in on all the details later.

* * *

She knows it is unreasonable to expect Neji to suddenly grow wings and fly straight to her house the second day he got back to Foshan, but she had half expected him to turn up for breakfast.

When he does not, she finds that she is _unreasonably _disappointed with the turn of events. In between bites of porridge and salted vegetables she starts to wonder if perhaps she should storm down to the Hyuga Manor after breakfast to give Neji a piece of her mind.

To not visit her last night is one thing. It wouldn't have quite been proper and more or less, and perhaps he was tired, she'd give him that.

But to let mid morning come and go like this? Preposterous if they are to remain friends.

He hadn't even the decent mind to visit _Lee _either for Lee would've certainly dragged him here as fast as Lee could run — which, if one stopped to think about it, is quite fast indeed.

All of this only meant that Ling Tenten has worked herself up to a righteous fury in between furiously eating her rice porridge and thinking about which spear to bring with her to the Hyuga Manor so she could perhaps, challenge her childhood best friend to a duel of honor.

Only after breakfast does her mother beckon her into the sitting room, in an odd turn of events, to tell her that "Your father sent an invitation over to the Hyuga Manor to invite Neji to dinner, dear. He wanted it to be a surprise when Neji showed up tonight."

With that, Tenten feels all the wind abruptly drain out of her righteous sails.

_Of course, _Neji didn't show up last night, and when he got the invitation directly from her father this morning he'd make sure to show up at an exact and properly punctual time.

Neji is nothing if not polite and punctual, it's practically his calling card.

Tenten sits down on the nearest chair with a muffled thump. "Mama," she says, attempting to find some sort of balance. "Did you know I was going to storm the Hyuga Manor to find him if you didn't tell me that?"

Her mother smiles, and pats her shoulder with a soft hand. "Of course, I knew." The look in her mother's eyes is a fond one, full of gentle nostalgia for days gone by. "Once upon a time, I did the same thing."

"_You, _Mama?" She doesn't believe it.

Tang Yingyue had been the only daughter of one of Sichuan's biggest households, and known throughout the province as a gentle, well mannered _lady _of repute. From her earliest memories, Tenten's image of her mother was that of someone above reproach or scolding from the neighbors, because her mother always knew what to say, what to do, when to smile and when to frown.

In Foshan, even Madam Haruno from next door, and Madam Yamanaka further away in the neighborhood often deferred to her mother's opinion, as Madam Ling, as she is now called, came from the city of Chengdu.

The idea that once upon a time, her mother had stormed off to confront her _father _about something? Preposterous. Even stranger? Her father had _never _mentioned such a thing to her before.

Her mother takes her hand, an impish smile quirking on her lips. "Why yes, my dearest daughter. We were, both of us, young once too."

"Mama," Tenten protests with great embarrassment. "I'm your only daughter!"

* * *

He stands before the main gate at the Ling House, and wonders if perhaps showing up too early and being overdressed for the occasion is going to make Tenten invoke judgement on him.

She'd always been somewhat disbelieving of the importance of a nice jacket, embroidered cuffs and a fresh, upturned collar.

"Neji," she'd once said, back when she was fourteen and he was fifteen, "how do you plan to fight if you're too afraid to get your clothes dirty?"

How indeed, is he going to handle dinner dressed like an overzealous dandy with his hair carefully combed and tied back?

Would Tenten even recognize him like this?

The uncharacteristic uncertainty holds him back from crossing the threshold of the courtyard, and makes him wonder about the state of affairs.

"Neji?" He had paused too long in the doorway, and ended up _seen. _"What are you doing there? Come in."

"I—" he stumbles over his words for a moment. In the years that he's been gone, Tenten has _changed. _Taller, leaner, still with those serious gray eyes and impish smile, but it's all slightly different than what he remembers.

He isn't sure how he feels about it. In the years that he's been gone, he's sure _he's _changed, but somehow, that hadn't quite registered until this moment, when he is standing on the outside of a doorway he never thought he'd hesitate at, wondering about the state of his _clothes. _

"You look good," he says, and immediately wishes that he could take that back. The first words in some time and all he has to say is something stupid like 'you look good' not even 'how are you?'.

May some merciful buddha have pity on his lack of brain to mouth filter. May Guanyin look down upon him with gentle kindness and strike him down where he stands.

Tenten blinks at him. "You look ill, but that's just a personal opinion." She throws an arm over his shoulders. "Come in already you big awkward dummy. Lee and Uncle Gai got here half an hour ago, and we're all waiting on you to start dinner."

And it's like he's never been gone at all.

Well, maybe not exactly. Their heights have changed.

They're both taller now.

But it's good to be home.

It's good to be home.

* * *

_Foshan 1927_

On the fifteenth day of the next new year, while lighting flower lanterns at roughly evening time by the Pearl River with Tenten, he turns to her with a single question on his lips, having already secured the blessing of his uncle some half a year past.

"Ling Tenten, will you marry me?"

And in the dim glow of the fading light, and of her own lantern which she holds crookedly, there's a half beat of pause before her lips turn up in the soft resemblance of a smile. "Yes, Hyuga Neji, I'll marry you."

And all is right in the world.

* * *

"You _do _like her." For a moment, all he does is look at Lee with open shock. "What happened to your determination to marry a martial bride?"

Not that he has any particular opinion about Young Miss Haruno, having spent exactly no time speaking to her. When they were younger, Miss Haruno had always been the one hanging back, too afraid to take the leap forward, and he had fallen into friendship with Lee and Tenten instead, and thus had never really spoken to Miss Haruno, who lived with her grandparents, having lost her parents when she was young. Her aunt and uncle — her late father's younger brother — however, lived next door to the Ling Household, and were forever complaining about Lee's _noise _of all things.

Lee had always been talking about how he wanted a lifetime someone to support his dreams of becoming a great hero, and making a name for his father's school, and having her own goals and ambitions that were similar.

Somehow, Neji does _not _quite believe that this is what Miss Haruno has been thinking about in the past few years, if her dedication to her chosen craft of medicine is any indication.

She is following in the footsteps of her maternal grandmother, Senju Tsunade, a woman famous for disguising herself as a man and went into the old forbidden palace to study under the imperial doctor.

So yes, perhaps Miss Haruno _does _have some ambition and perhaps Lee _does _admire her, but he, if forgiving him for being away for some three years, finds it exceedingly odd that Lee now speaks of Miss Haruno in hushed tones of the half lovesick.

"Well," Lee says, while rubbing the back of his neck. "It might have started when she started helping clean _up _the injuries that we rowdy folk accrue down on Martial Artists Street…"

What follows after is a long rambly conversation about how he'd started talking about his father's school again while Miss Haruno stitched up a cut over his eye and how she'd _listened. _

_Fascinating. _

"But you don't even know if she _likes you._" She might have a good pair of ears, but that means _nothing _if she wouldn't also like his friend.

And besides Tenten, who still, in his heart, lingers as the most solid pillar of his existence, Lee is his closest and dearest friend. Miss Haruno might listen, but does she truly know that what she's hearing is actually the beat that drives his best friend's pulse? He doesn't know that, and that is enough to make him advise caution.

"No," Lee says, perfectly serious. "No, I don't." The words are like a slap in the face. "But no one does really, in the end, until they ask."

"And," here he pauses slightly, because the next thing he wants to say sounds horrifically indelicate. "When are you planning on asking?"

"The Dragon Boat Festival a month from now."

Well, he has a month. A month to ascertain what Miss Haruno _really _thought of Maito Lee.

It would have to suffice.

* * *

In the month before the Dragon Boat Festival, Neji takes her into his confidence regarding a matter of Lee's heart.

"I am unclear if you know this already, but our dearest friend has recently fallen into a striking infatuation with the Young Miss Haruno who lives with Old Madam Senju closer to Martial Artists Street."

The words are delivered with stoic pride, Neji's face unchanging as he sits on a stool in the courtyard sipping tea from a covered bowl.

"I...was somewhat aware of that development, yes." She'd been aware that Lee had taken to talking about his 'springtime flower' with more frequency, hearts practically appearing in his eyes.

His enthusiasm about Miss Haruno had brightened up her mood considerably, because while Lee had sobbed buckets of enthusiastic happy tears over Neji asking her to be his wife, Lee's father, Maito Gai had seemed...a little bit disappointed.

But then, maybe that is what happens when a young woman is good friends with two young men since childhood, their parents start to have hopes and dreams of two very different sorts of futures that could not possibly exist at once.

But since Lee himself was unbothered and undeterred by it, preferring instead to tell her, in confidence of course, of his own hopes and dreams for the future, and that had brought her joy.

Neji, however, frowns, as if thinking something over. "Are you sure i's wise to leave Lee to his own devices on this matter?"

She looks up from where she is sharpening her naginata blade against the whetstone while sitting on the stone courtyard floor. "Who said we were leaving Lee to his own devices?"

Neji blinks at her, once, slow and certain. "Well," he says, still slowly. "What are we planning to do then?"

* * *

He marvels at the speed with which Tenten moved sometimes, truly he does. Within a week of outlining her brilliant and honestly quite cunning plan to move Lee into Miss Haruno's orbit, she has already taken tea with both Miss Haruno and Old Madam Senju twice, convinced Lee to win a match on Martial Artists Street while Miss Haruno was on break while working at the adjacent medicine shop, and now, somehow, Lee and Miss Haruno are exchanging a conversation while he and Tenten walk by.

Being engaged does really work wonders because they no longer attract any sort of glance when they are out in public together without some sort of chaperone.

"The ever capable Miss Ling," he says, as they pass the roasted duck stall, and then further, the tanghulu stall. "Soon to be Madam Hyuga."

There has not been a Madam Hyuga in a long time, not since his aunt had taken ill and passed away, and even before that, when his own mother had passed away, long before he could remember her except by the grainy wedding portrait that his father had owned before Hyuga Hizashi, too, had passed away the year he turned ten.

Afterwards, Hyuga Hiashi had never again stepped foot onto Martial Artists Street, or participated in a single show bout of skill.

He'd dismissed all the students in the school, closing down any rumor that he might teach another person for as long as he lived.

For all intents and purposes, the legendary Gentle Fist branch of martial arts now lived only in two people — his uncle, and himself.

And he had promised his uncle, if nothing else, that he would teach no students.

The black mark that had hung over their household since their father's death would end with him.

Tenten laughs. "So formal, Young Master Hyuuga." It is a golden moment, captured perfectly in his memory. Tenten — laughing, with the backdrop of the summer all around her. "Will it be like this for the rest of our lives?"

He makes a face, but resists the urge to attempt tickling her.

For one, she is already laughing. For another, they are still in public.

* * *

He marries Tenten on a cool day in the middle of Autumn, a week after the Mid Autumn Festival, a day chosen for it's auspicious nature, and close to the time when mooncakes are mass produced.

Close enough that the wedding mooncakes molded with the word for Double Fortune form a towering centerpiece at every wooden table in all four of the Hyuga estate courtyards where his uncle welcomes guests and pours out nu'er hong wine for everyone who's been invited, a bit more casual and loose than he would be otherwise, and Lee and Kiba try to get him roaring drunk before he has to actually make it to the bridal suite later that night.

And if he is a little tipsy when he says his goodnight, well, he is only getting married one night a lifetime.

* * *

**A.N. **_Swans back in with an update to this fic though it's been a year. _It's NejiTen Month again everyone! Check it out if you haven't already, the tag on Tumblr is booming with good art and fic and I am So Thrilled. Come join the NejiTen discord too! It's a blast. Invite Link: y6E8fMM

In other news, this is not a dead fic, it just (checks back of hand) takes a while to update, yeah, that's it.

~Tavina


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